


Chains To Set You Free

by vaderina



Category: Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (Movies)
Genre: Aurors Try To Help, Gen, Sick Percival Graves, Sickfic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-15
Updated: 2018-03-15
Packaged: 2019-03-31 18:16:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 853
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13980705
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/vaderina/pseuds/vaderina
Summary: Percival's aurors know that he's overworked, exhausted and ill. Yet they're too scared to try and help him or even acknowledge that their boss might need a bit of TLC.





	Chains To Set You Free

Overworked, exhausted and ill. Everyone in the department knew that those were the best words to describe their boss but nobody dared say anything. Percival needed to feel like he wasn’t letting the team down, that he could pull his weight and fulfil his duties after the mess Grindelwald had left behind. So everyone kept silent, occasionally a murmur of worry would ripple through the room but people kept their distance out of fear and guilt.

It shouldn’t have been a surprise that Percival’s coughing got worse, he swayed on his feet and drooped in meetings. Still nobody opened their mouths to speak up. They let him drag himself through days with coffees to keep him warm, pepper-up potions to make it until it was time to go home. The coughs that could be heard from his office were politely ignored even as they became raspier and wetter, went on for longer until people shifted uncomfortably in their seats. After one such bout of coughing the aurors agreed that they should probably at least check on their boss but leave it just long enough so their concern wasn’t glaringly obvious. They waited for ten minutes where they heard the odd weak cough but nothing more before they shyly knocked on the door and swung it open.

Percival was slumped on his desk, eyes shut and breath shuddering in his sleep. Despite strict rules about sleeping on the job the aurors quietly backed out of the room. If their boss needed a nap to get better they weren’t going to rat him out. Even if his breathing seemed a little juddering it was part and parcel of the chest infection that he seemed intent on walking through.

Later in the afternoon Tina approached his office with a coffee in hand, she’d be nominated by the aurors as their best bet at appeasing a potentially angry boss. It wasn’t often anyone took him a drink but as a whole the aurors felt it was warranted and was the perfect excuse to check on him. Percival was just as they’d left him though his breathing seemed much slower and shallow. Tina put the coffee down and put a hand to Percival’s cheek. It felt cool to the touch and the man didn’t stir. He must have been truly exhausted and ill to not even rouse or at least snuffle in his sleep.

Another hour later when there still wasn’t the sound of movement from Percival’s office Fontaine was urged to go in with a blanket. He draped it around Percival’s shoulders, the man not stirring from his place on the table. It was unusual but given how overworked the man had been nobody really worried. Fontaine brushed the unusually long hair from Percival’s forehead. The mean felt cool to the touch and his auror pulled the blanket a little higher on him. The now cold coffee was whisked away and with a final glance at the still form of his boss Fontaine closed the door.

The aurors were too frightened to try and wake their boss when it came time to leave the office. Instead Tina was once again ushered into the eerily silent office with a plate of sandwiches her sister had put together. She left them on the table as she eye Percival warily. He was pale and still, swaddled in the blanket just as Fontaine had left him. No doubt a whole night of undisturbed rest would do him good. She turned off the lights and shut the door behind her and shook her head at the rest of the team crowded just out of sight of the office. Nobody saw the set of pale translucent eyes filled with sorrow follow them out of the door.

In the morning people filed in, coffees in hand, a low happy chatter permeated the office. Percival’s office door was shut and people wondered whether he eventually made it home at some point in the night. It was gone 9am when there was no sign of Percival coming in and there was no noise from his office. His secretary had some folders in hand that if she couldn’t give him at least she could leave on his desk.

The shrill scream had the whole department jumping to their feet and rushing over to where the secretary was backing out of Percival’s office. The man was still slumped over the desk but the silence that encompassed the office was unnatural. His secretary was stammering about bruising on his cheek and how unnaturally cold the man had felt to the touch. Fontaine pushed to the front of the gaggle and shook Percival’s shoulder firmly. The movement caused a stiff neck to roll slightly and the dark bruise of pooled blood on his cheek was visible. Gasps went up and Fontaine jerked away. After a moment he pulled the blanket to fully cover the body of their boss.

“Someone call the morgue.”

The door shut behind the shell shocked group and nobody paid any attention to the sad ghost lingering in the office hoping to finally be at least noticed.

**Author's Note:**

> You know the drill - tumblr, @ladyoftheshrimp


End file.
